Duquesne falls short at home against Massachusetts

He’d counted on his teams’ ability to hold down opponents in the Big 12 at Kansas State and in the SEC at South Carolina, but even here in the Atlantic 10, Massachusetts coach Frank Martin tends to get defensive.

Just ask Duquesne, which was held to a season-low in scoring in a loss to Martin’s Minutemen on Saturday at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse.

Rahsool Diggins Jr. scored 27 of his game-high 32 points in the second half to power UMass past Duquesne, 62-53, extending the Dukes’ losing streak to four.

“I worked (as an assistant at Northeastern) under guys like Ron Everhart, who used to coach here (at Duquesne), and Bob Huggins (at Kansas State),” Martin said. “Those guys’ mindset is all defense. So it’s ingrained in me, and that’s how my teams approach it.”

UMass certainly took that view in its latest outing, holding Duquesne to 31.7% shooting (17.4 from 3-point range) and outrebounding the Dukes by 13.

“You take it.”

“No, by all means, go ahead.”

That appeared to be the sentiment as both teams seemingly couldn’t decide who wanted their game more.

In the end, Duquesne fell apart.

“I can’t say I’m discouraged about our performance,” Duquesne coach Dru Joyce III said. “Their numbers weren’t great either.”

But they were better in most areas than Duquesne’s. The Minutemen, thanks to Diggins’ second-half hot streak, wound up shooting 41.3%. Neither team cashed in at the free-throw line in a contest interrupted by the constant sound of an official’s whistle.

UMass made 9 of 19 attempts (45.5%) from the foul line; Duquesne wasn’t much better with an 11-for-22 (50.0%) showing.

UMass (10-12, 5-4) bullied Duquesne on the boards, outrebounding the foul-plagued Dukes, who were missing 6-foot-9 Chabi Barre for a second straight game with a hamstring issue, 48-35.

Eli Wilborn, the 6-8 sophomore in his first season at Duquesne, got a rare starting assignment and fouled out with 13 minutes, 57 seconds left. And guard Cam Crawford and forwards Jakub Necas and David Dixon all played significant minutes with four fouls for the Dukes (9-13, 4-5).

When reminded of that dilemma, Joyce shrugged.

“You’ve got to be able to survive. You’ve got to figure it out,” he said.

Daniel Hankins-Sanford added 12 points and 12 rebounds for UMass, which pulled away when Diggins scored 16 consecutive points in the second half to give the Minutemen a 54-45 lead with 2:30 left.

“Those shots for the most part were highly contested from my angle,” Joyce said. “We’ve just got to shake his hand.”

Diggins, a 6-2 senior guard who began his college career at Connecticut, shot 11 for 18, including 5 for 9 from 3-point range, in notching his seventh game of at least 25 points.

Earlier, he scored a career-high 46 in a 120-118 triple-overtime victory at Fordham.

“Rahsool is playing like an all-league guy. He’s carrying us,” Martin said.

Still, Joyce remained convinced that the Dukes defended well. Their offense, though, just didn’t click.

“We forced (Diggins) into tough looks, and he made them,” Joyce said. “I didn’t think our defense was an issue. We forced 18 turnovers (Duquesne committed 11) and only gave up 10 fast-break points (Duquesne scored 13).

“Not at any moment did I think our defensive performance was poor.”

Duquesne’s string of 34 consecutive games with a victory when holding opponents to fewer than 60 points, dating to 2018-19, nearly ended before UMass managed to exceed 60 late.

Tre Dinkins III led Duquesne with 11 points, and Crawford contributed 10 for the Dukes, who will head to Richmond on Wednesday with hopes of ending their current slide.

“The A-10 is crazy good. This league is hard,” said Martin, in his third season at UMass.

“I told Dru before the game, the job he’s doing for a first-year head coach with so many first-year players … Mark Schmidt (at St. Bonaventure). Are you kidding me? Fran Dunphy (at La Salle). The coaches in this league, it’s absurd. The only place this league is a little different than, say, the SEC and the Big 12 — the other two leagues I’ve coached in — is the depth at the 4 and 5. If you get the starting power forward in foul trouble, the backup is almost as good. He’s just as big, he’s just as agile, he just not quite as good.”

Martin certainly hasn’t changed his approach just because he’s not coaching in a Power 5 conference.

“If you watch my teams, we’ve got size and depth,” he said. “I still recruit like those are the teams we’re competing against. Doesn’t mean we’re playing like it.”

UMass clung to a 25-24 halftime lead in a game that started off bumping and grinding its way in a parade to the foul line.

The teams combined for 18 first-half fouls with Duquesne committing 10, , including three by Wilborn and two each by Necas and Dixon.

Duquesne trailed by a single point at the half, despite shooting just 29.6% (8 for 27). The Dukes made just 1 of 7 from behind the 3-point arc in the first 20 minutes.